Manifestation of Jesus to the Peoples of all Nations
Today’s psalm lays out the qualities needed for a just leader and how to embody God's care for the poor and needy in our communities. This aligns with the manifestation or epiphany of Christ in the world which calls us to lead with love, to be open to revelation, and to recognise that God’s presence is made known through all people and in all places. This feast is not only about our journeys to Jesus, but about God's journey to all the people of the world, especially those often excluded. The message is unambiguously about universal inclusiveness.
The Old Testament is the story of a God’s desire to broaden the embrace of all people. This God teaches, cajoles, bribes, interrupts sleep, bargains with…does anything to get our attention, to convince us of that embrace and to bring us safely home. In 2024, Pope Francis said: ‘Let us find God in flesh and bone, in the faces of those we meet each day.’ This is a challenge to us to break down walls and transcend borders and embrace difference without contempt and heal divisions. It is a call to pursue compassion and peace in our communities, striving to embody the values of justice and peace. At various levels, our experience of our church and political institutions is far from being inclusive. People not like ‘us’ are either suspect or simply do not count unless they are white, straight, speak our language, male and share our politics. Our tribal instincts about who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out’ live on.
Epiphany saves Christmas from sentimentality. It reflects the great reversal as God is enfleshed in and through the most vulnerable. The gospel disrupts and challenges every form of power over others as we contemplate a helpless child, poor parents, and marginalised shepherds. We are invited to see differently and not to look away if we are to encounter this God who disrupts us through the lives of people at the margins. The scriptures celebrate justice for the poor and the leader’s power to create it and illuminate the darkness and deception of power politics. Our task is to tap into the deepest part of ourselves where God dwells and seek to see with God’s eyes.
God chose to be revealed in a baby to the underclass of that time. And so, we can expect that as we celebrate Epiphany, that we need to look for the presence and sign of God in those places that will disrupt all our categories. This story challenges every concept that we have of power and how things should be. We are also called to enter those places where we can encounter the disruption of God in the lives of people that are in the margins. May we have the courage to respond to the disruptive messages around us from the poor, the underclass, those that have been rendered invisible in our communities and in our families. It is there that we will encounter the living Christ. Today’s passages disorient us about God and politics as much as they reveal God’s relationship to the world. The prophetic among us say that silence is complicity when we look away or hide behind the excuse of complexity. The people of Gaza, the West Bank, Sudan and many other places continue to be tormented by silence and complicity as our political and religious leaders give the nod to those carrying a genocide or hide the truth with propaganda and lies. Calls for a just response is often ignored. Palestinian words are treated with suspicion and qualification yet the words of the Israeli oppressor, that has a clear track record of lies and misinformation, are considered accurate. The challenge to Empire in today’s gospel is stark. Our humanity and the credibility of the gospel and Christian witness are at stake if we are not appalled, shaken to the core, outraged, feel the anger and do not let the suffering speak through the heartbreak, pain, and grief that many endure.
We are beckoned to move beyond what we think we know to allow something new stir within us. We are called to expand our horizons and see ourselves as sisters and brothers within our Common Home. Amidst darkness that many focus on, there is much light where so many people refuse to succumb to apathy and be silent. We see this throughout the world in the resilience of First Nations, the Palestinians throughout their history, and in the response of many to second Trumpian presidency. We are called to look for the love in the most insignificant places – to see traces of God’s presence everywhere – especially in overlooked people - and piles of rubble. May we find ways towards developing a ‘politics of peace’ – new ways of relating - and seek alternatives to the ‘politics of violence’ that leads to destruction, inhumanity, and neglect. We can show that a renewed life – a new normal - is possible for the most marginalised among us. It means working with those who prioritise justice and respond to the cries of the poor and be living witnesses (let your light shine!) of God’s presence in a broken world. By refusing to be silent, we can reveal new and radical alternatives with new and creative ways of being together. It means a willingness to take risks; to make one’s voice heard; to stand apart from the herd even if it means condemnation; and dare to let God be manifested in the worlds of those traditionally overlooked and marginalised.
The political equilibrium is upset with the coming of the Magi where the rule of an insecure king leads to the killing of children. This abuse of power is repeated in Gaza and Syrian and Lebanon, but so too is the costly resistance. Looking away allows us to collude with the power-hungry, vengeful, and fearful Herod or Netanyahu as genocide in Gaza unfolds. Will we expand our horizons and boundaries of concern towards people that God chooses to make a home amongst – ‘the least among us?’ God’s presence is found wherever we engage compassionately, share with others, and defend the least. We cannot be content with our ‘faith’ if it does not touch suffering people and ‘the least’ among us. We cannot be content when our political and religious leaders are silent or collude with the rich and powerful and make life miserable for the poor.
We have choices. We can choose to do things differently – to be ‘about the things of God’ - the things close to God’s heart. As we begin another year, God is waiting to encounter us anew, somewhere beyond our expectations - bigger than any ritual or tradition. Epiphany is any time when God appears in surprising places and pushes against our constructed realities. It may surprise us in the places and people where we might meet God. It may also surprise God when we courageously show up in places and situations and be with people because we have taken another road.